Chief war crimes prosecutor quits at crucial time

The International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague yesterday insisted that its work in tracking down war criminals in Kosovo and the rest of Yugoslavia would not be hampered by the departure of its chief prosecutor, Louise Arbour.

The announcement that Ms Arbour, 52, had been appointed to the Canadian supreme court emerged from Ottawa late on Thursday night. It was not unexpected but caused consternation, coming just as tribunal investigators are poised to enter Kosovo to search for evidence of war crimes.

Ms Arbour, who a fortnight ago announced the indictment of President Slobodan Milosevic and four of his cronies as war criminals, is expected to take up her new post in September.

Jim Landale, the tribunal's spokesman, said: "The announcement did not come as a total shock but it has come just when the investigation is at a very busy time. There is a very professional staff here and it will not affect the work that is in progress."

It is understood that Ms Arbour, a French Canadian judge and vice-president of the Canadian Civil Liberties' Association, had expressed concern about the amount of time she was having to spend away from home. By the time she leaves she will have served nearly three years of a four-year appointment.

She will take up a vacancy in the Canadian supreme court caused by the retirement of the previous representative from Ontario, an opening which, since the judiciary are appointed from each of the provinces, might not have come up again for some time. Ms Arbour had gained a reputation for feistiness and robust speaking since she succeeded the previous chief prosecutor, Richard Goldstone of South Africa, in 1996.

In January, the Yugoslav authorities physically prevented her travelling from Belgrade into Kosovo to visit the site of the massacre of 45 Albanians at Racak - murders that surfaced in the indictments against Milosevic last month.

The tribunal's 70 investigators have been interviewing refugees in the camps of Macedonia and Albania since the Kosovo war began and are about to follow Nato troops into the country to investigate claims of mass graves.

Ms Arbour's deputy, the Australian lawyer Graham Blewitt, will take over in the short term before a new appointment is made by the security council.

The tribunal, based in The Hague, was set up in 1993 specifically to investigate war crimes in Yugoslavia. So far the court has indicted 89 people, though only 26 are in custody.